For the past years we have
experienced the lack of communication between the EU institutions and the
citizens, leading to a lot of misunderstandings, misinformation and an overall
confusion that leads to negative and often mistaken perceptions of how the EU
works.
And while it is undeniable that the
block of 28 countries has many shortcomings, the citizens’ anger is often
mistakenly pointed towards it. During the European Year of Citizens 2013, one
of the main discussions in the numerous conferences that took place focusing on
citizen participation, was the failure of the EU institutions to reach out and
engaging the European voters.
Most European states have already a
number of NGOs that are doing the job which the governments of the EU member
states should be doing: explaining the EU to its citizens. In Ireland this role
is filled by the European Movement of Ireland (EMI), a remarkable organization
that for decades now is working to fill the gaps in the knowledge of Irish
citizens about the EU.
In an interview with Neale Richmond, the policy and projects manager of the organization, we looked at the work that the EMI is doing in Ireland, how the Irish people view the EU, the mistakes and failures of the Irish government and that of the EU itself.
Neale emphasized that the main goal of the EMI is
seeking to build a connection between Ireland and the EU at every level, mainly
by working with young people, business leaders, students and the general
population. “Making sure they are aware of Ireland’s role in the EU and are
able to access information about it,” he explains.
The European Movement is not a federalist
organization. “We do not believe in a federal Europe, though it is hard to put
a label on such idea. A lot of people would say that Europe is a federal entity
already,” Neale adds.
At this stage the EU is changing rapidly. What has
started off in the ‘50s as the European Coal and Steal Commission has now been integrated
massively.
“In EMI we do not take sides in referendums, we are
not the European Federalists. We solely provide information, though we are
supportive of deeper integration to the extent that it can benefit not just
Ireland but the European Union as a whole” explains Neale.
But if further integration requires another treaty,
the EMI thinks that now is not the time to do it. “We’ve had a huge amount of
treaty changing in the last decade and that’s affected the EU. The organization
needs time to catch up with itself, to implement the reforms agreed before
looking to reform again,” Neale says.
Besides further integration is already happening
according to Neale, as we have a multi-speed Europe. Many countries are opting
out from the euro-zone, the Schengen Agreement and many other EU policies, yet
some European nations want to go a bit deeper.
“In the EMI we would like to see Ireland being part
of the Schengen and probably have a directly elected EU Commission. This is the
kind of deeper integration that we would support,” mentions Neale.
As the EMI is a membership based organization, dealing
with their members and running events or briefings that are of interest to
them, is their first priority. It is an independent body, so they are in the
position to offer constructive criticism of EU.
The organization is also the national implementation
body for the Blue Star Program, which is a primary school initiative. It runs
in over 100 schools, teaching children about Ireland’s role in the EU, but also
covering geographical, institutional, historic and cultural subjects about it.
In addition they do a number of talks and training
for secondary school and third level students, depending whether they are simply
looking career information or something to do with their course.
EMI furthermore runs the College of Europe
Scholarship program for Ireland, that is reaching out to people who graduate
from the University. Finally they run a number of in house training events
for businesses and government departments about the EU.
Neale strongly believes that Ireland’s EU membership
was “definitely” beneficial. Even though its membership has not been 100%
positive, it has made a really huge difference in the economic and social
development of the country.
And that belief is shared by the EMI supporters. According
to a poll conducted by the organization last January, they found that 86% of the
Irish people are still in favor of their country’s membership in the EU.
Of course there are certain sections of society that
have issues with the EU.
“There will always going to be people that oppose it,
because of their political views. They just do not approve the block’s general
approach,” Neale says. “Our job is not only communicating the EU with people
who support it,” he continues.
Despite the support of the Irish people for the EU,
it does not necessarily mean that they are blindly going to accept a treaty, or
they are always going to be positive towards it. There is a huge problem with
narrative when it comes to Irish-EU relations at the moment, whereby Brussels
is always blamed for everything.
But when something positive is coming out of the EU,
it is the domestic government that takes the credit. “Our work in the EMI is to
show the positive, the non institutional and the non governmental aspects of
the EU,” states Neale.
“We do it with great difficulty sometimes. The
easiest audience to talk about the EU is our primary schools’ program. Because
we can keep the basics and the simple entities so they really appreciate it,”
he says. Across Europe, when people want to talk about the EU now, they do so
about the bail-out, the common fisheries and common agricultural policies.
They do not think that the reason why we have the EU
is because of the two world wars that ruined Europe. There hasn’t been a war in
our continent since its creation and that is its greatest achievement that is
often forgotten.
“There is definitely skepticism towards the EU in
Ireland, but not like in the UK. People here do not want to leave the EU, there
are just a bit uneasy about certain things, there is a bit of confusion and it
is our job to try and clear that up” explains Neale.
People who are most positive towards the EU in
Ireland are those of older age. Probably because they remember Ireland before
it joined the EU and motorways were built, or the infrastructural enhances that
the country got through the regional funding from the EU.
It is also positive among the younger people too,
who see the EU as an opportunity to do Erasmus, travel and work anywhere in
Europe. The group that has the biggest problem with the EU is the age group
between 35 and 50.
“Everyone refers to them as the squeeze middle,"
Neale describes. They are the people who bought at the time of the boom, and
who are suffering the consequences. “They have one or multiple mortgages, they are probably in arrears and negative equity, struggling to pay child
care, health insurance and they don’t see the benefits to the same extent of
the EU,” he continues.
It is understandable that this generation is
probably sceptical towards a lot of things and just the EU happens to be one of
them.
Another sector that is a bit sceptical about
Ireland’s EU membership is the fisheries sector. It probably hasn’t benefited
as much from EU legislation as the agriculture industry, but Neale believes
that the deals are still relatively good, and most importantly they protect
fishing as a viable industry first.
“There are still fishing jobs and if it wasn’t for
the EU, the Irish fishermen would probably not be able to compete at all on an
international level. We do have our waters protected and have access to other
waters, but most importantly the safety levels of Irish fishing now compared to
over 40 years ago much better,” Neale explains.
“That is something that isn’t appreciated and
sometimes people probably give out that there’s too much bureaucracy, but it is
there in their best interests. Plus you have to make sacrifices when it comes
to sovereignty and other issues as an EU member state” he continues.
The second part of the interview will be published soon.
